New and creative ideas to make policing more effective are to be encouraged through changes to the Police Innovation Fund, Policing Minister Mike Penning announced today (23 October).

This year the multi-million pound fund will consider proof-of concept bids as well as implementation-ready bids in a move designed to reward more breakthrough ideas than ever before.
The change will mean police forces will be able to seek funding to assess an innovative idea, as well as fully worked through proposals. This will allow for more funding to be targeted at ideas coming from the grassroots of policing at a much earlier stage.

Among projects previously supported by the Police Innovation Fund are:

A single public contact and command-and-control centre used by Warwickshire and West Mercia Police and Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service;

The Met’s Police Now recruitment scheme, which helps to attract the brightest and best graduates to policing; and

The rolling-out of body-worn camera to eight forces.

By supporting increased efficiency and collaboration between different police forces, the Police Innovation Fund will help forces save around £250m over the next five years and thousands of hours of police time.

This year the Police Innovation Fund will go further than ever before to support the transformation of the police for the 21st century.

By opening it up to proof-of-concept bids, forces can seek funding to develop an interesting new idea or approach which could drive innovation, collaboration and ultimately make the police more efficient at doing their jobs.

I particularly want to see forces working together this year to develop bids and genuinely explore new concepts and technology.

Implementation-ready bids are especially welcome in the following areas:

Technology-enabled public contact and communication channels to improve public interaction;